Birdnotes: [BIRD NOTES] May 11, 2007

Bird Notes

Here in Putney, at our hillside open and wooded site, we saw this week:

Black and White Warbler. Our first Hummingbird of the season today. From notes I have kept for 10 years, we always see them arrive during the first ten days of May. Indigo Bunting here yesterday and today. Baltimore Oriole checking out a maple tree. Robins are building nests. Thrushes echo in the woods. A Cardinal pair feed every evening and morning at our feeder.

---Nancy Waterhouse

On Wednesday a.m. I saw and heard a Blue-winged Warbler from the railroad bed in Hinsdale, NH. It was only about 20 feet off the trail. I heard the bee buzz (I just saw one in Cape May last week) and found him right away. It was just a short way past the gate (1/8th mile) walking toward the dam on the left. I was pretty excited!!! He was sipping nectar?? from tree blossoms and a chickadee kept chasing him off but then he'd come right back. Very cool!!!

---Lani Wright, Brattleboro, VT

Olive-sided Flycatchers were singing in Grafton today.

---Don Clark, Grafton, VT

This morning(5/10)at the Retreat Meadows:

Semi-palm. plover 3

Least sand 31

Lesser yellowlegs 2

Greater " 3

Solitary sand 2

Spotted sand 2

Western palm warbler 1 (no easterns)

Field sparrow 1

---Hector Galbraith, Dummerston, VT

Today at Chipmunk Crossing we had a pair each of Purple Finches, Rose-breasted Grosbeaks, Chipping Sparrows, Cardinals, Goldfinch, Song Sparrows and the first appearance of the Ruby-throated Hummingbirds. The male didn’t waste anytime in courting his true love by acting out his “pendulum flight” as she watched from a branch of the Rose of Sharon. All of that energy after just arriving from South America. Amazing little creatures!

There was a mature Bald Eagle sitting in a tree at the Retreat Meadows. The variety of shorebirds that Hector reported on the sandbar in the West River was still there today. We had good looks at a Savannah Sparrow on Marina Road while Baltimore Orioles and Warbling Vireos sang from the treetops. The Turkey Vultures were still hanging out in the Locust Trees near Carleys Florist on Putney Road. In Vernon at the Miller Farm on Pecks Road we watched Killdeer, Least Sandpiper and Solitary Sandpiper. The nesting eagles are tending at least one chick in the nest.